CCA Brokering Deal for Holiday Late Night Rail

By Eric Richardson
Published: Friday, August 08, 2008, at 04:11PM

IMGP0006.JPG Frederick Dennstedt [Flickr]

A Metro Red Line train, photographed in January by Fred Camino of MetroRider LA.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The Central City Association is hoping to make this year's holiday season a bit more car-free, working to line up private sponsorships that would allow the Metro Red Line to run until 3am on the weekends. The extended service would run from the beginning of November through New Years' weekend.

Tracey Chavira, CCA's Director of Government Affairs, said today that the extra service would cost $130,500, and that the organization is having to work quickly to get a deal done that would have service running in November.

In today's edition of its "CCA Delivers" newsletter, the organization said that it has met with the offices of Councilmembers Jose Huizar, Eric Garcetti, and Wendy Greuel. It hopes that the trial run would "reveal there is sufficient ridership to sustain a permanent extended schedule."

The extended hours would apply to the Red Line between Downtown and North Hollywood. The current service cuts off between midnight and 1am, depending on the starting point and destination. Service used to run slightly later, but hours were cut in 2005.

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Comments

1
Urban Bruin writes:

For $70,000 the city "gets" to shuttle people for free from Union Station to Dodger Stadium for half a season. For $130,000 the entire city could travel around town without cars to enjoy the holidays with friend; no worrying about gas, parking and most importantly a DUI. I think the later would be money better spent.

# on Aug.09.2008 AT 01:30 AM
2
LAofAnaheim writes:

I think the city shoots itself in the foot by providing all these "free" services. Imagine, just charge $1 per ride on the Dodger Shuttle, maybe the city will then have a little to spare on extending the Metro by 1 hour or proceeding further with the Broadway Red Car project.

# on Aug.09.2008 AT 03:58 PM
3
Eric Richardson writes:

Remember that we're talking Metro here, not the city. Metro's a county agency.

# on Aug.09.2008 AT 06:07 PM
4
Calvin Fleming writes:

How can we make this a reality? If the Red Line stays open until 3 a.m., the ridership will be there...

# on Aug.09.2008 AT 07:18 PM
5
JM writes:

Keeping them running late is a great idea. Not so sure about making it free. Doesn't it cost more to use your car (gas and parking) anyway?

# on Aug.10.2008 AT 12:20 AM
6
Eric Richardson writes:

JM: This service would operate with normal fares. LAofAnaheim brought up the Dodger shuttle, which is a free service.

# on Aug.10.2008 AT 09:02 AM
7
BusTard writes:

I feel that if Metro can set aside some $27 million annually for its free motor vehicle towing service (http://www.metro.net/news_info/facts.htm#P181_2906), then a penumbral slice of that pie used to greater effect—i.e., hauling more people in a fashion that contributes to far fewer private motor vehicles being on the road and thus less money for all those towing vehicles being on standby—would be rather nice. Moreover, and as someone above mentions, perhaps the lat night service could be extended permanently once folk realise that L.A. nightlife could be appreciated beyond 11:30 p.m. Cutting short a burgeoning evening so as to make the last train at midnight is maddening. (Worse is Metro's pushing the Sunset After Hours campaign, which is all about the decrepit 2 line—which usta also have the 1 and 3, remember? Who here has taken the 2 during daylight hours and not been disgusted? After hours the 2 is far worse, especially after waiting an hour or more, which is the line's frequency after midnight.) In any case, the money is there. The problem is Metro's money management.

# on Aug.11.2008 AT 10:40 AM
8
Brigham writes:

This is really really good news! There needs to be a lot of aggressive advertising (possibly on the train and in all the stations and around Hollywood) that trains will be running until 3AM on the weekends to get people aware of this. Ignorance can be deadly to nascent transit aspirations.

# on Aug.13.2008 AT 02:49 PM
9
the daniel writes:

How can I help make sure this happens, as an LA taxpayer and voter?

# on Sep.09.2008 AT 10:42 PM

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